The present invention relates to apparatus for loading material onto a conveyor in a mine working.
It is known to utilize scraper-chain conveyors to transport material from a mineral face in a mine working. It is also known to provide a machine or apparatus which moves back and forth along the conveyor to cut and/or load material. One form of known machine is the coal plough which strips coal from a coal face and loads the coal into the conveyor. In other mining techniques, especially for winning valuable ores such as gold, the face bearing the ore is broken up by explosive blasting and the material detached from the face is then loaded into the conveyor. The material to be loaded may vary considerably even in one working or heading and the exact requirements of the loading apparatus are sometimes difficult to forecast. For example, to take extreme cases, a heavy hard irregularly-splintered rock-like material bearing a mineral, which may be in the form of a magmatic gangue, is more difficult to load than relatively light-weight coal and will subject the apparatus to greater wear. It is therefore desirable to be able to make such adjustment of the apparatus to cope with the prevailing conditions and this applies not only when the apparatus is used solely for loading but also where breaking-up or cutting of material is to take place as well.
A general object of the present invention is to provide an improved form of loading apparatus.